magnet

The definition of a magnet is a person or thing that attracts, or a piece of iron that can attract other iron.

Facts About Magnets

Magnets work because of the movement of electrons that produce a tiny magnetic field. Electrons can act like particles or waves, and they have a charge and mass.

A magnet produces a magnetic field which attracts metals such as iron, cobalt, and nickel. In this magnetic field, the lines of force exit through the north pole and enter through the south pole, so that explains why opposite poles attract.

A magnet can have more than one north or south pole, but they always occur in pairs, so if it had two north poles, it would also have two south poles.

Medical uses include MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and electromagnetic fields that can help bones heal as well as helping to prevent bone and muscle loss in zero gravity environments.

Magnet therapy involves placing magnets on parts of the body to alleviate pain. It is said that this works because more blood is attracted to the area (the iron in the blood), which speeds healing, and the magnets affect nearby cells.

An example of a magnet is a light that attracts moths at night.

An example of a magnet is a set of plastic letters with iron backs that cling to the side of a refrigerator.

magnet

noun

any piece of certain kinds of material, as iron, that has the property of attracting like material: this property may be permanent or temporarily induced

see electromagnet

a person or thing that attracts

Origin of magnet

Middle English magnete ; from Old French ; from Classical Latin magnes (gen. magnetis) ; from Classical Greek Magnētis (lithos), (stone) of Magnesia

magnet

noun

An object that is surrounded by a magnetic field and that has the property, either natural or induced, of attracting iron or steel.

An electromagnet.

A person, a place, an object, or a situation that exerts attraction: a village that is a magnet for tourists.

Origin of magnet

Middle English, from Old French magnete, from Latin magnēs, magnēt-, from Greek Magnēs (lithos), Magnesian (stone), magnet, after Magnēsiā, a region of Thessaly, or Magnēsiā, a city in ancient Lydia.

Words near magnet in the dictionary

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All other great men are valued for their lives; He, above all, for His death, around which mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, God and man are reconciled; for the cross is the magnet which sends the electric current through the telegraph between earth and heaven, and makes both Testaments thrill, through the ages of the past and future, with living, harmonious, and saving truth. Edward Thomson